Donald Trump and White House officials walked back a Friday announcement that there would be tariff exemptions on imported electronics.
In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump directly denied the tariff exemption announcement.
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“This is really mind-boggling. If this was serious industrial policy, the main thing you want is certainty: ‘Here’s the tariff, it will be in place for the indefinite future, and you should plan accordingly,’” Dean Baker, an economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a left-leaning think tank, said, according to The Washington Post. “Here, it’s basically: ‘Come back next week and see what we’ve got.’ That’s no way to run an economy.”
Walking-back the walk-back? They’re doing a whole 1-2 shuffle!
I’m not surprised that this is how the second Trump administration has started. This level of stupidity is exactly what I was expecting. What does surprise me, though, is that many tens of millions of people voted for this. Honestly, it’s shaken my commitment to democracy. Maybe the people shouldn’t be making important decisions.
I think that’s a good idea, but, unfortunately, if put to a vote, I’m confident the American people would vote against it.
I don’t think that what K-to-12 schools are capable of teaching even in the best-case scenario can be sufficient to equip the average person with the knowledge and critical thinking skills necessary to, for example, evaluate complex economic policy on its merits. I have a STEM PhD but it isn’t in economics and I don’t think I can evaluate economic policy well - I go with the consensus of economists, but that’s easy for me because I think their best interests and mine are aligned. (I want to see the stock market go up.) I’m not sure what a person whose interests are not aligned with the economists’ is supposed to do… Listen to ignorant demagogues who promise everything, apparently.
…stupidity? 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
They’re intentionally crashing the economy so they and all their billionaire buddies can buy everything up for cheap. Everything is going literally exactly as planned.
I was one to agree with you for a time, but at this point I’m not even sure what the plan could actually be, US treasury bonds are taking a big hit because of this shit and the global economic order is shifting to exclude the US and could even endanger the dollar as the world reserve currency. That’s a change so seismic no one could even predict what it would mean for anyone. If that’s his intention then whoever came up with the plan is stupid beyond all imagining
If that’s his intention then whoever came up with the plan is stupid beyond all imagining
Ding ding ding!
Their plan literally involves devaluing the dollar. They don’t want the dollar as the global reserve currency. They have no idea how it’ll all actually shake out but they’re confident that they’ll end up proportionately richer than everyone else. Sure the absolute amount of their wealth might decrease, but the real amount relative to the “serfs” will skyrocket.
They basically want their own little technofeudalist fiefdoms where everyone unfortunate enough to live in them is basically their property.
I think that’s it, and they victimize LGBTQ+ people and immigrants because their supporters love it and it buys them time to implement their kleptocracy. Some of the Trump people are true-believer Nazis, but some of them are just greedy assholes who will throw anyone under the bus for their own gain.
Before the election, I saw a house flying a big flag with the words “Elect Trump King of the United States”. So, uh, maybe monarchy would turn out to be even worse…
With that said, I understand how you feel. I don’t know how democracy can work in a post-truth era.
Y’know, if America had a constitutional monarchy, it might actually work out just fine. Let Trump be the king, so he can rant, do ceremonial stuff, be in the news all the time, have his fans, cause controversies, &c.… meanwhile the real elected government would be quietly busy attending to the people’s business.
The US was never a democracy to begin with. It was a government designed to benefit one very particular small but powerful minority.
It’s just that now it’s come out of the closet.
It’s strange that it would happen now, at a point when literally every job can be automated(or will be automatable within the next 5-10 years).
You know, this may really piss off some folks who got an early notification that there would be an exemption for electronics. You know, his insider trading buddies. It will be interesting to see who gets the angriest about this last minute change.
On April 11, 2025, traders placed large, targeted call option bets on Apple. That evening, the Trump administration quietly exempted smartphones from tariffs, news not publicized until April 12. These trades weren’t speculation - they were placed before the memo was released.
The USA is definitely a joke now. It’s just that everyone is laughing nervously. We are afraid that falling so fast from top to bottom will bring the system down.
Which system? The US political system? That one is damaged beyond repair and needs to be reworked completely. The global economic system? That one is also damaged beyond repair, but the rework will create a lot of instability and most likely war.
